Orthopedic braces are useful as preventative aids to prevent injuries to joints caused by motions or orientations of the joint that are outside the biomechanical limits of the joint. Orthopedic braces are also useful to promote proper healing of a joint following an injury to, or surgery on, the joint.
Knee braces in particular are widely used to treat a variety of knee infirmities. Such braces may be configured to impart forces or leverage on the limbs surrounding the knee joint in order to relieve compressive forces within a portion of the knee joint, or to reduce the load on that portion of the knee. Moreover, in the event that knee ligaments are weak and infirm, a knee brace may stabilize, protect, support, or rehabilitate the knee.
The knee is acknowledged as one of the weakest joints in the body, and serves as the articulating joint between the thigh and calf muscle groups. The knee is held together primarily by small but powerful ligaments. Knee instability arising out of cartilage damage, ligament strain and other causes is relatively commonplace since the knee joint is subjected to significant loads during the course of almost any kind of physical activity requiring the use of the legs.
Significantly, tearing of the ligaments in the knee also occur frequently, and typically require surgical intervention for proper healing to occur. According to the American Academy of Orthopeadic Surgeons (AAOS), over 80% of ligament injuries happen due to an excess rotation of the tibia with respect to the femur, thus causing the ligaments to tear. Most of these rotational injuries occur when an individual commences movement from a relaxed stance, or when a person is not utilizing or firing their muscles.
A limitation of existing orthopedic devices is that there are no devices that are readily available to effectively indicate to a user that such a potentially injurious situation exists. Thus, there is a need for a device that monitors joints and alerts a user when a joint is “out of phase” and is thus at risk of exposure to injury.
Rigid frame braces may be utilized to reduce the occurrence of such injuries by stabilizing a knee joint pre or post-surgery. However, there are numerous drawbacks to rigid frame braces. Such braces tend to be bulky and to add substantial weight to the user's leg. Further, rigid frame designs in ligament bracing tend reduce the performance of athletes, and a large number of physicians will not subscribe such ligament braces to their patients.
Additionally, the use of rigid frame braces in contact and incidental contact sports such as football, basketball, and soccer can lead to injuries to players coming into contact with a player wearing such a brace. Such injuries may include contusions, cuts, or even broken bones.
Further, a rigid frame brace is constantly rigid and constantly provides support to a joint, even when such support is unnecessary. The use of a rigid frame ligament brace on a leg to prevent injuries during activities is similar, in an extreme example, to inflating an air bag in a vehicle, attaching the seatbelt, and then attempting to drive the vehicle.
Thus, there is a need for an orthopedic device, such as a knee brace, for warning a user that a joint is “out of phase” and for preventing ligament and other tissue injury without reducing the performance of the wearer or duplicating other disadvantages of rigid frame brace designs. Such a device may be configured to be utilized to prevent injury to any joint of the body, including hip joints and the back. In a farther variation, the use of the warning system of such a device may be utilized in a manner to train a user and/or the user's muscles such that they maintain proper joint orientations to avoid injuries to the joint. In a farther variation, the use of a warning system may be used to condition amputees to utilize more effective and efficient biomechanical motions, for example, to achieve proper gait dynamics.